loo

See also 100

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA: /luː/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uː

Etymology 1

Unknown; possible origins include:

• French lieu, place
• A particular brand of early toilet cisterns, trademarked 'Waterloo'.
• (fancifully) the exclamation "gare à l'eau!" ("mind the water!") used when emptying a chamber pot out of a window onto the public sidewalk or street.
• the numbering of 00 on a toilet in a building

Noun

loo (plural loos)

1. (colloquial, Australian, New Zealand, UK, India) toilet

Translations

toilet

Catalan: vàter (ca) m. Chinese: Simplified Chinese: 厕所 (cè suǒ) (colloquial) Traditional Chinese: 廁所 (colloquial) Finnish: vessa (fi) French: petit coin m., waters m pl

Italian: cesso (it) m. Japanese: 厠 (ja) (kawaya), 便所 (ja) (benjo) Polish: kibel (pl) m. Russian: туалет (ru) m. Thai: ห้องส้วม (th)

Etymology 2

From Chinese

Noun

loo (uncountable)

1. A card game

Translations

card game

Chinese: Simplified Chinese: 卢牌戏 (lú pái xì) Traditional Chinese: 盧牌戲

Etymology 3

From Hindi, from Sanskrit  (ulkā).

Noun

loo (uncountable)

1. A hot, dusty wind in Bihar and the Punjab.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘The Man Who Would be King’, The Phantom ’Rickshaw and Other Tales, Folio Society 2005, p. 135:

     It was a pitchy black night, as stifling as a June night can be, and the loo, the red-hot wind from the westward, was booming among the tinder-dry trees and pretending that the rain was on its heels.

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Spanish

Verb

loo (infinitive loar)

1. First-person singular (yo) present indicative form of loar.